<p>It is 59 degrees at 5:30 PM here in N.California.</p>
<p>Cayuga: this article talks about how to manage deer ticks–seems those tubes do work: <a href=“http://ag.udel.edu/extension/horticulture/pdf/ent/ent-13.pdf[/url]”>http://ag.udel.edu/extension/horticulture/pdf/ent/ent-13.pdf</a></p>
<p>dmd77: Thanks. I think I will go ahead and make the tick tubes. I generally don’t use insecticides but the tick/lyme disease problem is pretty bad here. A friend also said she has good luck with Deer Off. By keeping the deer out of her garden, she can keep the deer tick population down.</p>
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<p>H gave me one of his old flat screwdrivers to try on dandelions - it works great! It looks exactly like this one:
[dandelion</a> tool](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Screw_Driver_display.jpg]dandelion”>File:Screw Driver display.jpg - Wikipedia)</p>
![http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Screw_Driver_display.jpg]dandelion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Screw_Driver_display.jpg%5Ddandelion){kind=link}
<p>:)</p>
<p>I have had more luck with using a shovel blade vertically next to the root. I have had less luck with the dandelion tools…they require better aim than I seem to have!</p>
<p>58 in upstate NY today and it’s been raining since Saturday. </p>
<p>My beautiful Princess Yaku Rhodies are blooming and I can’t even be outside to enjoy them. 
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<p>At least it was nice last week and I was able to do almost everything I needed to get the gardens ready for the tour June 8th.</p>
<p>The house we bought last fall has some very pretty pine trees, which we love, but one is ailing. Can’t figure out why. I’ve done some reading and the books say check the drainage, which is the same for the other pine trees that are all doing fine. I think I have to call a tree doctor and they cost a fortune.</p>
<p>Also, has anyone ever had a tri-color beach ? We had one in our old home and I miss it mightily. It is a delicate shade-loving tree with a leaf that turns a pretty pink in early summer with a green center. It looks like a flowering dogwood. I want to plant one here but I don’t think I have a suitably shaded spot.</p>
<p>It’s interesting gardening here. We have large groups of deer in our yard virtually every morning. They devoured all the flowering azalea. If it blooms, they eat it. Our dog is useless. She doesn’t even bark at the deer. She just runs out and hangs with them. They barely register her.</p>
<p>Sewhappy–Oh deer!</p>
<p>you have desperate deer if they are eating azaleas! Our neighborhood is a no tulip, rose & hosta zone. In my experience they don’t touch daffodils, correopsis or astibles. Anything ‘furry’ does not seem to be appealing. Good luck - I consider them large rodents!</p>
<p>I agree with nj2011mom - “furry” is not a favorite taste to deer. I’ve had luck with yarrow and blue salvia. Between the slugs and the deer, hosta are an endangered specie in our neighborhood.</p>
<p>Hostas are deer candy whereas daffodils are poisonous to deer. Although these bloom only briefly, I planted allium along my front walk with great success; as a member of the onion family, they’re unappealing to varmints.</p>
<p>boy I am glad we don’t have meaningful wildlife problems, although H was upset last night when he found that a neighborhood cat had bagged a scrub jay in our yard.</p>
<p>worrywart, did you know that the Japanese eat hosta? I haven’t tried them yet- I have enough leaf veggies, but I should at least know what the slugs are enjoying.</p>
<p>lol . . . the house we almost bought here in NJ was in a town with areal bear presence. Seriously. There were lots of precautions in effect to keep the bears out of the houses and yards.</p>
<p>sewhappy, what are New Jersey’s “areal bears” ? I have a vision of bears swinging from the trees, doing the Tarzan call, and holding Soprano-type guns.</p>
<p>sorry a typo . . . ‘a real bear problem’</p>
<p>LOL, oh my gosh. I make enough typos that I should have figured that out. Sorry ! </p>
<p>But I like the idea of areal bears . . . . I thought maybe they were New Jersey mutants.</p>
<p>I prefer the vision of the Soprano Bears with Automatic Weapons.</p>
<p>Well, you ought to see the slugs with their snub-noses. Dangerous little critters.</p>
<p>Maybe that’s where the word comes from. After all, don’t the forensic police always look for slugs after a shooting?</p>
<p>Slugs are beasts. I’ve set out the saucers of beer that they’re suppose to slurp up and fall into and drown (how’s that for a gruesome way to go after pests?). My slugs just drink the beer and slither off on their merry inebriated way.</p>
<p>The first year in a new home is always an adventure. There is a cardinal that keeps hurling himself (assume he’s male because he’s a very bright red) against the palladium window of our sunroom. It feels like “The Birds”. This goes on during the late morning every day except in rain. Can’t figure it out.</p>
<p>Sewhappy: male cardinals are territorial. He sees his reflection and tries to fight with it to drive it out of his territory.</p>